


And for special effects he has six filters

by imminentinertia



Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Attempt at Humor, M/M, SKAM Fic Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 02:01:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11818884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imminentinertia/pseuds/imminentinertia
Summary: lbr, it’s sheer luck (and Isak’s love-struck POV) whenever Even comes across as suave (well, maybe except for the carefully executed slo-mo walk). This is whatreallyhappened in the school bathroom.





	And for special effects he has six filters

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Skam Fic Week Day 3: alternative first meeting

Isak’s ribs feel like they are shrinking, an uncomfortable little thing they do when he feels on edge. They certainly did it when he noticed the ridiculously attractive guy in the school cafeteria the other day and was caught looking at him, and now that guy is standing only a few metres from him, evidently half-heartedly listening to Vilde’s chatter while glancing idly about. Cafeteria Guy’s eyes land on Isak and his ribs _move_ , he can swear they do.

He miraculously survives Cafeteria Guy walking right past him to find a seat right behind him.

However, his continued survival is threatened when Vilde, after stumbling her way through a mortifying kosegruppa welcome speech, announces a love exercise. When Cafeteria Guy moves forward, Isak’s tightening ribs helpfully remind him that doing love exercises around someone this gorgeous, someone who appears to move in sultry slo-mo and who looks like a poster boy for effortless style, can only end in disaster.

It’s not only Isak’s ribs that are doing unspeakable things around Cafeteria Guy. His arms and legs somehow feel too long for his body, like when he had that awkward growth spurt when he was fifteen and for a while became incapable of dribbling a handball or even swinging his leg over his bike without getting his foot caught in the back wheel. Cafeteria Guy looks like he’s never tripped over anything in his life.

And there’s no knowing what kind of hellish game the love exercise turns out to be. Isak suddenly feels small and alone, without his friends, certain to be glared at and possibly chewed out by Sana, certain to start to want to maim Vilde, not good enough friends with Eva anymore to try to cling discreetly to her.

So Isak decides to take a break.

 

\----

 

But there is no escape.

It’s so fucking typical, that when Isak must leave the toilet to go back to the fucking kosegruppe meeting, hoping against hope that the love exercise is over, that Sana hasn’t started plotting how to kill him and that Cafeteria Guy is back to sitting around looking cool at a distance, Cafeteria Guy is _right there,_ washing his hands right next to Isak. He is beautiful, even just doing something that mundane. There’s a joint tucked behind his ear. Isak’s absurdly mobile ribs decide they quite like that disregard for rules.

It would be nice if he let Isak get at the paper towels, though.

Actually, it would be nice if he _left_ any paper towels because it doesn’t look like he intends to and Isak’s hands are wet. But Cafeteria Guy glances at Isak, making Isak’s rib shrink just a bit again, just as he reaches inside the dispenser for the _last_ paper towel after using about a hundred of them.

Cafeteria Guy yelps.

He pulls his hand quickly to him, gaping a little at his hand while the last paper towel flutters gently to the floor, and then brings his hand to his mouth, sucking the ball of his thumb. Then he looks back at Isak, his eyes wide, and he speaks.

“Sorry, did you want paper towels too?”

Isak shrugs, bends down and picks up the last towel from where it landed, dries his hands. He notes that while Cafeteria Guy is blessed with a sensuous deep voice and looks like a film star, he’s apparently capable of getting little scrapes and bruises like a human being.

Isak glances up, not wanting to be caught looking too much at Cafeteria Guy, although that may be too late by now anyway, and Cafeteria Guy is biting the corner of his lip and looking right at Isak, and when Isak reaches towards the bin to throw away his one lonely paper towel Cafeteria Guy takes a graceful step back.

The grace ends there, as Cafeteria Guy’s foot flies away from under him, taking the rest of his unreasonably tall body with it, and he lands on his ass on the tiles.

His loud “OW! FUCK! FUCK!” spurs Isak into action, rushing over to be the kind of unhelpfully helpful one is when someone else has fallen.

“Are you okay?” Isak asks, bending down a little, outstretched hand vaguely near Cafeteria Guy, who’s curling up on the damp floor.

“Like fuck I am,” Cafeteria Guy mutters, trying to sit up and then cursing rather a lot more.

“Tailbone. Fuck. Ow ow ow. Fuuuck.”

“Oh,” Isak says, a little at a loss now. He can’t very well pull Cafeteria Guy to his feet if his tailbone’s hurt, because that’s a pain like few others. He continues bending towards Cafeteria Guy in the approved ‘Helping A Person Who Has Fallen’ position, when it occurs to him that this is hardly existing in sultry slo-mo. His mouth does an involuntary little twitch and he has to clamp down on a hint of laughter threatening to surface.

Cafeteria Guy uncurls, slowly, looks up at Isak and then at his still outstretched hand, then reaches out and grabs it. Isak nearly loses his balance when Cafeteria Guy tugs himself upright, but manages to stay on his feet and not get too absorbed in touching Cafeteria Guy’s hand.

When Cafeteria Guy is standing up, wincing and puffing a stray strand of hair out of his eyes, Isak even manages to let go of his hand, just a little bit too hesitantly, nothing too bad.

“Are you okay?”, Isak asks once more.

“I’ll live,” Cafeteria Guy says, smiling now, and Isak can’t help but smile back. Cafeteria Guy has that kind of smile. And now, hair back in place and hoodie only slightly askew, he’s back to look like the epitome of poised.

“Come outside?” Cafeteria Guy says, reaching towards the side of his head.

Then his eyes suddenly look a little wild. He pats his own ear, whipping his head round, mouth a little agape. Isak just stands there, his hands feeling a bit useless where they hang at his sides, baffled at Cafeteria Guy’s sudden distress and wanting to help but not having the faintest idea how.

Until Cafeteria Guy’s eyes lock on something on the floor and his face falls a little.

It’s the joint. Once fat and springy and full of promise, it’s now crushed flat. The paper is transparent on the side where it’s evidently got wet.

Cafeteria Guy picks it up with a small sigh, dusts it off and pats it a little as if that will restore it to its former glory. Then his eyes meet Isak’s again, and he grins a little crookedly.

“About the only thing left to go wrong is that my lighter won’t work.”

Isak’s ribs move once more, but somehow it’s a very nice little quiver rather than the all too familiar tight and constricting feeling. Isak has a lighter in his pocket, he knows it works, he’s got this.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the Bauhaus song [St. Vitus Dance](https://open.spotify.com/track/6P3nh4PHHSwLs2a0WEdnnS). Don’t ask. Coming up with a more or less awful title invariably takes as long as writing 50 000 words.
> 
> Shout-out to my girls in the beautifully named gc <3
> 
> I'm [skamskada](https://skamskada.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr if you want to say hi or yell at me or talk about early '80s alternative music.


End file.
